The Quickest Way to Speed Up Your Website

QUICK SUMMARY Google just rolled out their Speed Update, which considers how quickly your website loads on mobile devices to determine the site’s ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Although Google claims that “very few” websites will be negatively affected, it’s pretty clear that the affected sites will mostly be small business sites…

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Ways to Outrank the “Big Guns” in the Local Search Results

QUICK SUMMARY You’re trying everything you can think of to get your website ranked on the first page of the Google search engine results pages (SERPs). So it’s frustrating to see SERPs filled with nothing but review sites and other aggregators, like Angie’s List, HomeAdvisor, Yelp, Thumbtack and more. These sites rank at the top…

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Are You Taking Advantage of the Facebook Cover Image?

SUMMARY The obvious thing most business owners miss on their Facebook business page (you do have one, right??) is the huge amount of prime real estate right at the top of the page – the cover image. If you’re not making it work for you, then you’re missing out. The right size for the cover…

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Why You Cannot Ask Customers For a Yelp Review

SUMMARY Did you know that Yelp’s terms of service expressly prohibit you from soliciting reviews? And that Yelp penalizes companies that do this, causing them to virtually disappear from the Yelp results? Actually, most review sites have policies that prevent you from directly asking customers for positive reviews (i.e., only asking individuals who’ve had a…

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